In June 2015, an Amtrak spokesman had good news for tourists and locals weary of seeing the Mystic train depot dark and shuttered. Amtrak agreed to lease the depot that was closed four months at that point, the spokesman said. The best case scenario would have a café, coffee shop and restrooms reopened within two months.

Unfortunately for travelers, the local community and the business owner, however, what instead happened was more like a worst case scenario. It took Sherrie and David Crompton 10 months to renovate the terminal before they could open Mystic Depot Roasters. The business celebrated a grand opening late last month.

“What started out to be a small venture, quickly turned into a massively creative, yet exhausting undertaking using our hearts and souls,” the business owner wrote in an early October post on the Mystic Depot Roasters Facebook page. “I never thought I would be refurbishing 100-year-old train benches, but it taught me patience and perseverance, as I restored them to their original beauty and maintaining the train station's character and integrity.”

Repairing rotted wood and crumbling, decrepit bathrooms may not have been as satisfying an endeavor, however.

The community and visitors alike have much to be grateful for the Cromptons’ efforts. Locals and train travelers reportedly are showing their gratitude through enthusiastic support for the depot business. That the business owners had to undertake such extraordinary efforts, however, is yet one more item on an already long list of ways the tourists the state relies on so heavily for financial support are ignored or treated with disrespect.

That a train station in the state’s tourism powerhouse, where numerous trains stop daily and foot traffic is brisk, was allowed to slide into such disrepair is disgraceful. It’s no secret Amtrak has financial struggles, but isn’t having closed or shabby depots greet train travelers just further discouraging people from traveling by train and exacerbating Amtrak’s woes? Dirty, run down or closed train depots are just another tourist turn-off on a list that includes shuttered highway visitor centers and a tourism website that eliminated Connecticut from New England destinations because of the state’s lack of financial support.

First Selectman Rob Simmons said he’s seen visitors searching for Mystic Seaport instead dragging their suitcases down Route 1 near Sea Swirl because they couldn’t find an information or hospitality center at the depot. The Mystic Chamber of Commerce fields numerous complaints from visitors frustrated they are unable to find a place to pick up a paper map or brochures for attractions.

As long as Connecticut has its figurative hand out to accept visitors’ dollars, those visitors deserve better. A hefty portion of the state’s economy and the region’s businesses rely on tourism for survival.

Yet even as the Mystic Depot is enjoying a new life, Amtrak closed the Westerly train station Oct. 1 despite it being located in a thriving downtown in another tourist area. Local officials should act decisively to prevent that beautiful depot from suffering the same slide into decrepitude as did Mystic’s station.